Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Series: Lunar Chronicles #2
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: February 5th, 2013
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

The fates of Cinder and Scarlet collide as a Lunar threat spreads across the Earth...

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to finally read this book. I got it the same month it was released but I was too afraid to pick it up because what if I didn't love it? And what if I loved it so much that the wait to Cress killed me? 

So yes I was a coward and didn't read this magnificent book until recently and I have to say, it was SO worth it. I am probably in the minority here but I still preferred Cinder.

The fact remains that I had quite a few problems with this installment, not major ones, so it only cost the book half a star but they were problems. 

I am going to start by mentioning the little things that I didn't like.

There were too many POVs so Kai and Cinder didn't get enough page time. WHY??? Grrr. I tried not to skim some parts of Wolf and Scarlet's POVs but Kai and Cinder are my favorite characters and they are 'my ship' so yes I found myself getting annoyed by the fact that they didn't get enough page time. Hell Kai's page time was almost non-existent. At its core, this series is their story so it hurts that they didn't get enough page time. Maybe I shouldn't complain so much since Cinder did have quite a few scenes but when you're so attached to a character you cannot help but feel disappointed when they are no longer the only star.  

This book also had a severe case of insta-love. It took Scarlet and Wolf a day. *bangs head on a wall*. I'll elaborate on that later. 

Going back to the actual book.  Scarlet was a good character but, I didn't love her nearly as much as I loved Cinder. I loved Scarlet's determination and how nothing could get in the way of her saving her grandmother but sometimes I think she forgot that her life was actually in danger. She was rather reckless. I do think that the author did this on purpose because Scarlet seemed to me to be a hotheaded kind of character. She was strong and feisty but she didn't always think things through.

Wolf on the other hand did NOT work for me. I know most people loved him to bits and pieces but to me, he was kind of pathetic. I found him a puppy dog kind of cute but that's it. He turned his back on everything he believed because of a girl he had just met. He was weak and couldn't seem to stand up for himself. He lacked a backbone. I am sure the author intended him to be a timid character that was likable and lovable but I've seen better examples and he didn't live up to what I had expected from him. 

We also met Throne. Throne is so cute. I probably would have fallen in love with him had I not been so hopelessly in love with Prince Kai. I don't know what to say about him. He is just so silly but underneath all of that he is also loyal. He can be annoying and he likes to make jokes about everything but he will always have your back no matter what. 

Both Cinder and Kai managed to surprise me in this book. They both grew even more and I fell in love with the two EVEN more. I hadn't thought it could be possible. Kai though, I was surprised by how he didn't spend his whole time hating on Cinder. Oh he definitely questioned whether she had been lying to him the whole time but he also realized the little things like how she had genuinely loved her sister and while he doesn't know whether she is good or bad, he didn't immediately label her as a b*tch and then make some bad decisions (we've seen that happen before haven't we?). What he did in the end broke my heart though. 

The romance here is obviously not between Kai & Cinder (WHY???) but between Scarlet and Wolf. I don't care how you dress it, how you try to present it, it is what it is; the romance between them was based on insta-love. They take a day to fall in love. While no words are said the connection is obviously there and I personally believe that their relationship was not nearly as well developed as it could have been. However, Marissa did manage to pull it off well enough because I wasn’t raging (because yes, me and insta-love are not friends).

The plot was great. It was well developed and I loved it. Some of the turns were predictable but some of them, I hadn't guessed. It kept me well engaged and once I got into the book (yes I was reading it at a snail pace so I didn’t speed up until the 2^nd half when things started getting even more interesting) I finished it in 2 hours. I have to say though, I didn't pick up on as many of the elements of the original tale as I did in Cinder. Cinder was an 'out of this world' re-telling, probably the best I had read, Scarlet on the other hand was a fabulous re-telling, so while it was good, it again didn't live up to Cinder. 

I do remain spellbound by the world Marissa manages to create. I don't know how she does it but she took two of my favorite genres and mashed them together to create this wonderful world.

Going back to the ending I mentioned earlier. WHY? WHY WOULD SHE DO THIS? WHY DOES SHE HATE US SO MUCH? My poor Kai. If anything happens to him, I will find a way inside this book and I WILL KILL Levana and then feed her to the wolves. I kid you not. Grrr. My feelings aside, I know why Kai did what he did and I respect him for it, in fact I even love him a little for it but the fact remains I am heartbroken and I want my two favorite characters to get the happy ending they deserve. I'll probably have to wait for another two books before that happens (because it will or there will be hell to pay) so until then I'll just curl up into a ball and cry myself to sleep.